The vast majority of balers does not have its own engine, but is towed by a tractor, and is powered by coupling the power take-off (PTO) shaft of the tractor to an input shaft of the baler. The baler further has a flywheel connected to the input shaft, and a gearbox that drives the various mechanisms in the baler to pick-up the crop from a field, to form the crop into bales and to wrap twine and/or foil around the bales.
A one-way clutch is typically arranged between the PTO shaft and the flywheel to allow the flywheel to rotate faster than the PTO shaft. The baler input shaft can be operatively decoupled from the tractor PTO, e.g. for transportation of the baler from one field to the other.
A large and heavy flywheel is typically required in a baler, especially in so called “large square balers”, or “high density balers” to overcome peak loads encountered by the baler gearbox, which occurs e.g. when the plunger of the baler compresses the crop material in the bale chamber when forming the bales. By using a flywheel with a high inertia and running at a high speed (e.g. 1000 rpm), peak energy for the peak loads can be delivered by the flywheel. During the compression the flywheel slightly slows down, but is accelerated again by the tractor PTO between two compressions.
A problem of a heavy flywheel is that it becomes more difficult to start-up such a baler, because of the high inertia of the flywheel. EP1974601 addresses this problem by disclosing a large-bale baling press with a starting arrangement having an auxiliary drive, which assists in a first phase of starting up the large-bale baling press, until the main drive accelerates to a higher speed than the auxiliary drive.
Another problem of a heavy flywheel is that it becomes more difficult to manually rotate the flywheel during maintenance. This problem is addressed in EP2193707, where a baler is described with an auxiliary motor configured to operate components of the baler in a slow manner for adjustment or maintenance. The motor may be operated in forward or reverse mode.
Another problem of the high inertia is that it takes more time to switch off the baler. This problem is not addressed in the art. Instead, one just waits until the baler finally comes to a stop, but until that moment, approaching the baler is dangerous, as one might get caught by the moving mechanisms.
While recognizing the benefits of a baler with an auxiliary motor for the above mentioned purposes, the mounting arrangement thereof can be improved.